Dogged Haven
by whizegirl
Summary: For Kagome, it has always been safe when she was in the future, nothing to worry about. What happens when a demon ends up in the future, and Inuyasha doesn't get there in time to save her? Catastrophy.


A/N: Okay so I just wanted to get this story out of my head, I actually think I'm going to go somewhere with this one! This was five pages long in Microsoft Word so hopefully that's a long enough prologue for all of you! Oh yeah and this story is not going to be alternate universe, even though it'll seem like it! This is also before Kikyo met Inuyasha; I got the timeline a tad bit messed up. Cheerio!

Dogged Haven

Prologue- So Long Ago

It was a beautiful night, the moon was high in the sky and a little village was sitting humbly in the valley side, the water from the farmland glistening. Every one from miles around knew the small village, what holy power it beheld. Particularly, a demon who knew the awesome powers was crouching in a tree, silently watching the town priestess through the door less frame, doing her work on herbs.

"How hard could it be?" he said out loud to himself, to break the stillness that surrounded him. "All I have to do is raid the village and steal the jewel… simple."

But really, he knew it was not simple, he knew there was a infinitely powerful miko by the name of Kikyo who protected the village… and the precious stone. The young woman had already created a barrier around the small community and another one around the very precious item. There was practically no way to get in.

But he would find a way.

He was going to get the jewel…

And kill the priestess while doing it.

She was swallowed by silence. The sound of grinding herbs, which was turning into a fine medicine for massive cuts and infections, was the only thing that seemed to fill the quiet. Her bow and arrows lay next to her on the table, just in case of an attack. It was in the middle of the night and everyone was already in a deep sleep. Kikyo wasn't in high vigilance; she had put a barrier around the town, and had worked very hard on it and was sure it would stay up against most demons, the other ones… Well… She would have to carry them out.

Things were really going well in the town; Kikyo had noticed the small houses had already been rebuilt from the last demon attack, her sister was turning into a fine priestess and doing away with the vermin's that constantly went after the stone had been vanquished easily…

Except…

She had been taking care of a man who had, recently, been badly burnt. His name was Onigumo, and was completely unrecognizable from before. He had been scalded to within an inch of his life; nobody seemed to want to revive him, knowing full well that he would not want to live when his body would be able to move.

So they thought of Kikyo, who would do very well into putting him into good health, and was always one to make sure of full strength to each and every patient when they left.

He was doing quite nicely, actually… But, as Kikyo noticed, evil just seemed to ebb off of him. Making disgusting comments as she changed his raps, telling her every few moments as she made his medicine what lust he felt towards her… What love…?

A familiar sensation rippled through Kikyo's body, making the hair on the back of her neck stand straight, goose bumps on her arms. She had been feeling this sensation a lot since the jewel seemed to end up her hands.

"A demon…" she breathed, her face blank.

Quickly dropping her grinder on the table, she grabbed her weapon and ran out the door. She had run until she was at the very edge of the barrier…

Or what used to be the barrier…

The ofuda charms had been sliced in half, by what obviously looked like an incredibly powerful sword and an incredibly powerful wielder. That wasn't good.

Kikyo had a good guess of who it was. Rumors had gone around about him, about a demon that could easily break down barrier and steal the treasures that inside of it. He was gossiped to have white hair strung back into a small dragon's tail and very high rank clothing and armor. A big sword sat at his thigh, able to create massive destruction.

As she turned to go find more charms, she found herself face-to-face with a demon, from what she could tell, dog.

"Dog."

"Miko."

"Get away from this village," she shot, her voice eerily even. "You don't belong."

"Oh, I'm scorned," he feigned a hurt face and laughed. "I'm here for the jewel, not to play fight with some dirty priestess."

He started towards the village only to have Kikyo walk in from of him. He looked down at her, his face still cool and superior.

"What now?"

"You're not getting the Shikon no Tama."

"Oh really?" he sneered haughtily.

She could tell this was unquestionably the dog that had been braking down barriers and stealing precious items. His clothing showed high status, prince or king, the armor and large sword at his hip showed definite power however the scuffs at the seat and knees of his pants showed otherwise, like he had just been scaling trees.

She did not feel at all frightened, though.

Taking an arrow from the basket slung across her back, she drew back the bow, positioned the arrow and pointed it directly at demon's chest. She was only a few yards away from him.

Everything from the swaying trees and the rustling grass seemed to stop.

A beat went by.

"Get away." She said simply, inwardly feeling smug when she saw his hair bristle, the color draining from the stripes on his cheeks. His face filled with contempt at the last moment.

"Make me."

She let go and only slightly smiled when a pink glow appeared around the arrow…

…Only to let it vanish from her face when it was sliced in midair.

"I didn't know I could do that." he admonished, inspecting the sword in front of his face.

"What is your name?" she glared at him, frowning.

"You are just too sweet, my name is, as many know, Matsuka Otanashi." He bowed and slowly started to walk towards her.

Kikyo was starting to bring out another arrow as the demon paused. She also paused. In a blink of an eye the demon Matsuka had gotten behind the miko and grabbed her arrows, snapping the strap and reappearing back only a foot away from her face.

He put it directly in front of her face and crushed the basket of arrows with a definite 'crunch'.

"Do you really think I'm that easy!?" he growled, not noticing Kikyo quickly hiding something behind her back.

"No, I assumed you were more difficult." She said, giving a pointed look at the broken ofudas.

"Oh that!" he laughed darkly, "That was easy! But you, I didn't think you would be so easily unarmed."

Kikyo started to glance around, Matsuka took it as a look for escape, but she took it as a diversion.

As quickly as she could, she brought out the arrow and stabbed it as deep as she could into his heart. He stood there for a moment, as if paralyzed before dropping to the ground. Kikyo noticed that he was not dead when he started to choke out in a soft, sullen voice.

"So, are you going to kill me?"

"I don't think I could."

Matsuka slowly turned his head towards the youthful woman, ignoring the tickling feeling in his heat, physically, not mentally.

"Why?"

"Like I'm going to tell you, demon." She spit out the word, like acid. Kikyo knew she was too weak to kill him, so she was going to attach his soul to something of his, an item of clothing, his sword, anything, and get rid off the item so that he will never be disturbed.

Kikyo silently looked him over; trying to find an object she could possibly entrap him in. To her surprise, she found a necklace hung loosely around his neck, three wooden beads, were the only thing on it; two small, one big.

"It's was my fathers." Matsuka gritted.

"Perfect."

"You bitch."

Kikyo ripped the object off him, snapping the wood hair. She walked over to one of the ofudas that hadn't been broken and slapped it over the beads. It sunk into the middle bead and sizzled quietly before leaving carvings on it.

She walked back over towards Matsuka and ripped a single hair out.

"OW!" he yelled croakily, "What are you doing!? If you're going to kill me just do it!"

"Stop being a whelp."

Silently she worked on the spell, Matsuka watching in awe and anxiousness as his hair blended into the wood hair of the necklace. A blue aura had started to filter around the priestess. When she stopped praying, the blue was gone. Kikyo walked back over to the paralyzed beast. And set the jewelry on his shoulder, right beside the arrow.

"What are-?" he was cut off as his body dissipated into air, leaving only his father's necklace and a fallen over arrow on the dew covered ground.

"Excellent." She mumbled as she silently fell to the ground.

"Excellent…"

She had no powers but she could feel it, she could feel the familiar presence that had just ran past her room urgently. Keade's eyes popped open, had her sister just ran past her hut?

"Sister?" Keade asked to anyone, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

She started to get up, her face determined.

"Sister?!" she yelled.

Nobody answered back.

Hurriedly putting on her sandals, she raced outside; tripping over rocks on the dirt pathway. She had heard Kikyo running to the barrier. Voices drifted through the entering of the clearing just as Keade was about to go through it. She paused and quickly hid behind the wall of a hut, trying to listen to what they were saying.

"What are-?" An unknown voice paused and silence hit the air. Only a moment later, she barely heard Kikyo say 'excellent' as a small thump was hear through out the court yard. Keade walked out of the hiding place and gasped.

Her sister sat in the middle of the clearance, passed out. The barrier was long gone and there seemed to be an arrow with a broken necklace right next to her passed out body. Running to her sister's side, Keade bent down and examined her, noticing no broken bone, she shook her shoulders softly.

"Sister!"

Nothing.

"SISTER!" Her panic started to rise in her throat, shaking Kikyo's shoulders harder.

"Sister, wake up!" When her elder's eyes started to flutter open, Keade gave a sigh of relief, and she silently prayed in gratitude. Noticing her sister whisper, she pointed her gaze downwards.

"Put the barrier back up…" She choked, barely audible.

Keade turned away from her and started to put the barrier up from the ofudas kept in her shirt. Her mind was whirling as she did the prayers, the pink glow surrounding them as the spell was starting to work. So many questions started to plague her mind.

What had been going on here?

Was Kikyo hurt?

Why had the barrier been knocked down?

Was this a demon's doing?

Slowly standing back up, Keade walked back to her place in the grass.

"I did it."

"Thank you…Keade…"

Slowly crouching down a bit further, she looked her sister in the eyes.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

Gazing seriously back up at her, ignoring the tremendous ache, Kikyo started to speak croakily.

"Take that necklace," she motioned to the glowing jewelry around the arrow.

"Hide it with your life; put it somewhere where no one can find… it…" Her voice started to wither away and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Don't worry sister, I will."

545 years later…

"Mommy! Mommy!"

A small little girl with black raven hair tied neatly in a pony tail, with a flowing yellow dress, ran up to her mother, who was silently reading the newspaper on the shrine's steps, her legs crossed.

"What, baby Kagome?" she questioned, putting down the newspaper.

"I'm not a baby any more!" she cried indignantly, her eyes defiant.

"Of course you're not, what did you find?"

"This!" She held up her hand. A muddy string with three beads at the bottom, dull and round, was what she grasped.

"Oh my!" The mother gasped, eyes round. "That is very pretty, isn't it?" She gently took it from her daughter's hand, wondering how in the world tiny Kagome managed to stay so clean when the broken necklace was so dirty.

"Shall I go clean it?" her daughter smiled widely and the mother got up, wiping her blue dress down with her clean hand. She followed her mom into the kitchen, from the outside of the shrine.

Turning on the hot water, the mother started to clean, nicely chatting with the young girl.

"Where did you find it, honey?"

"Near the big tree out front!"

"The Goshinkinboku?"

"Yes!"

Finishing her job, the mom held the object up, seeing it glow brightly from the kitchen window light.

"It's beautiful!" she gushed, staring at it in awe.

"It's for you, mommy!" The toddler cried.

"Thank you so much, love!"

As the daughter ran off to play, the mother stayed behind, examining the gift that was just given to her. Her hand felt along the string, the two beads on the outside and the one in the middle with the carvings.

From what she could tell, the carvings said, 'to sleep'. The glow had resided when her daughter had left the room.

This left the mother interested. What connections did her daughter have to this necklace? Why was right next to the god tree? Her daughter was never one to dig in the ground or get dirty, so why do it for this necklace? Was it special?

Gently rubbing her swollen round belly, the mother walked into her bedroom, to put the small broken necklace into her special wooden jewelry box. The pregnant woman began to think as she sat on her bed and rested.

'My five year daughter, Kagome, will be a special one. She'll get the necklace back when she is older, when she'll be able to take care of it.' The woman knew her daughter was very special, knew her daughter was different from the other children. But she knew Kagome was going to be some one who will be v important to life.

Maybe…Someday…

She could change the world.


End file.
